First-ever Encounter
by sierragust
Summary: While climbing down Mt. Aleph, Felix soon encounters a young man with a green stone, not knowing that another man is hunting it down.


**This story is for TrippyToastersAndABagofChips.****I hope you don't mind me borrowing half of your story.**

Felix stood once again at the edge of the chasm. A half-empty bottle of ale was clutched in his left hand, and the hilt of his sheathed sword was in his right.

"Alex, you bastard!" He screamed into the chasm. "I'm coming for you!"

He took another drink from the bottle. He felt sick to the stomach, but he was going to do this. It was now or never. If Alex was alive, he was down there, and Felix was going to find him.

He had leaped off Venus Lighthouse and survived. He had been struck by a huge boulder and made it. He could make it down that chasm. And if he didn't survive... Well, who would care? Everyone hated him. Even Mia had left him.

He took another drink and finished off the bottle. He tossed it into the abyss, waiting to hear the sound of shattering glass. After a few moments, he was convinced it had reached the bottom. He thought he almost heard it. It couldn't be that far. It was all in his head.

As he jumped, Felix felt the world around him disappear…

**X~X~X**

Toan felt the hair on the back of his neck begin to prickle as he stepped down into the cave, dust rising from the bare ground as his feet kicked up cloud. He swallowed.

Oh man, this is _creepy…_ He'd never been anywhere so dark, silent or menacing in his whole life. Never –he was pretty sure that the Macho brothers had never described the cave as 'creepy' – in fact, they'd called it a boring, dead place with nothing but dust and the bones of those buried by the soldiers who fought the East four hundred years ago.

'_Sure, the bones are freaky-arse and the like, short-man, but that place gets so boring so fast, you fall asleep where you stand.'_ Macho had told him one time, and that had been the end of any wish Toan had to go into the Cave.

But why could he feel a… crawling in the flesh on his bones? There was something strange an unnatural about this cave. Something that scared him. Toan's feet barely made a sound in the dust as he crept through the darkness. Torches lined the passageways, burning brightly and doing their best to dispel the blackness that had settled onto the cave. Toan wondered how Dran had time to keep all of those torches lit – it must have been a huge bother. Then again, Dran was a god…

"It's for real this time, Toan."

Toan yelped and spun around, drawing his dagger from his belt and holding it threateningly before him. The Fairy King's eyes crinkled in amusement as Toan's hand dropped, the boy heaving a huge sigh of relief and slipped his knife into his belt again.

"Sorry, I thought you were –"

"-a monster?" The Fairy King asked kindly, tapping his staff in the dust. Toan felt his face flush, and he nodded reluctantly. It sounded stupid, even now.

The Fairy King gave a heavy sigh. "No, Toan, it is not as ridiculous as you might think. Monsters, drawn by the Dark Genie's corrupt power, have infested these caves. Dran or no Dran, they're here, and they will attempt to stop and destroy you –something they will instinctively do. You could feel them."

Toan looked down at Atlamillia. The light from the torches gleamed off the mirror surface… "Yes."

"As the Hero of the Atlamillia, you can sense the voices of the world itself – you can even feel the abominations themselves. Any others walking into this cave would feel that nothing would be amiss –until they got a face-to-face encounter with a Skeleton Soldier, that is. Be prepared, Toan, for from here on, you will be put to the true test." His arms spread wide, encompassing the dark chambers around them. "First, conquer this wretched Divine Beast Cave and find Dran's lair. That's your first goal."

Toan nodded slowly. It made sense, but –

"What happens when I find him?"

The Fairy King looked thoughtful. "I could be wrong, but not is all as it should be, here. I believe the Nolun Village Mayor is correct. Something has changed in this cave – and I have the feeling that it may have something to do with Dran."

"If Dran is –" Toan really didn't know how to phrase this. "If he's not okay, what'll happen?"

"We deal with that when we find him, my boy. No sense in jumping the gun, hm? For now, I want you to focus on finding and absorbing Atla. The ones containing your village have been scattered throughout this cave, and I suspect you're eager to find your family and friends."

Toan smiled eagerly.

The Fairy King chortled. "If you wish to open an Atla to collect that which lies in fragments inside it, simple walk up to the Atla. You will know one when you see one – and if not, Atlamillia will sense it and react accordingly. So you walk up to the Atla and touch it along the dividing groove. Atlamillia will enable you to bypass the security traps I've laid upon them to prevent meddlers and monsters from getting to the pieces, and it will take care of the rest. Once you get some pieces of your village, return to ground level and I'll show you how to reconstruct the world!"

Toan wished he knew what the Fairy King was talking about, but he grinned and nodded anyway. The old man raised an eyebrow at Toan, then gave the boy a short bow.

"Now, show me your true ability on this quest. Good luck." The Fairy King vanished in a pillar of light, and Toan was left alone once more. The cave was silent, then -

'_Careful there, Toan. That windmill wasn't made for climbing on.'_

Toan jumped and looked around, his eyes scanning the torch-lit cavern. That had sounded like Komacho – he could have sworn it was the short, compact man who lived on the outskirts of Nolun Village. Then he shook his head.

_I'm being ridiculous,_ he thought in despair. _Must be lack of sleep._

He scanned the cavern again, searching for the Atla the Fairy King had described. There was nothing here – no monsters, no chests, and certainly no floating spheres. With a sigh, Toan slipped his dagger from his belt. There was only one way to find all of the Atla and Dran – he had to go further into the cave. No matter if he was scared witless, no…

Toan found the next cavern more quickly than he would have liked –and almost as soon as he rounded the bend, his senses came alive with the sound of shuffling feet, hoarse growls and shrieks of bats. He flattened himself against the wooden boards lining the walls and peered around.

A Dasher – an armoured boar that walked on two legs and wielded a spiked club larger than Toan's torso – was wandering about the cavern, occasionally snuffling the air before going back to pacing. Its club was resting on one shoulder, and he was carrying what looked like a bag of money at his belt. Beyond the Dasher a large orb floated a foot above the ground.

Toan's heart stilled.

_An Atla._ He ducked back around the bend and rested his head against the wall. He took a deep, steadying breath, feeling the stone on his hand hum in response to the Atla. That Dasher was in his way – he didn't relish the idea of killing the beast, but that Atla… he needed to get it.

Atlamillia hummed an affirmative. Then it suddenly glowed with a dangerous red light. Toan's senses went ballistic, and he rolled away just as the Dasher's spiked club slammed into the wall – right where his head had been resting. Toan's breath caught. How close had that been? He leapt to his feet, his dagger drawn and he dropped into an instinctive crouch. He began to circle the boar as it shook its head and pulled its club from the hole in the wall it had made, Toan struggling to gather his thoughts.

_What do I know about Dashers? What have the Macho brothers talked about? What would my father have done…?_ Toan's thoughts stilled as the Dasher's beady red eyes locked on him again. The creature sprinted forward, swinging its massive club sideways and down, aiming to crush Toan's chest in. Toan darted behind the Dasher as it brought its club down, gasping.

_That thing is fast! But its recovery time is so slow – that's it!_ Toan readied his dagger, fixing his eyes on the spiked hair covering the Dasher's scalp. The boar snorted and heaved its club up again, squealed and whirled around and at Toan again. Toan's eyes narrowed, and he waited until the Dasher was swinging the cudgel at his head before he rolled around the monster and drove his dagger between the gaps in the Dasher's breastplate and into the flesh.

"Hyahh!"

The Dasher squealed again, then vanished in a swirl of dark air. The pouch of money dropped to the earth, and Toan snagged the sack up with one hand. The gilda clinked against one another as he emptied it in his palm.

Ten gilda… not that bad for the first monster taken care of. He stuffed them into his pocket and turned his eyes to the grand prize. Atlamillia glowed, humming fiercely as he neared the sphere. The Fairy King had been right – the stone had begun to react as soon as he'd found an Atla. Toan hesitated for a moment when he reached out. This was it…

His fingers brushed the dividing groove, and the entire sphere split down the centre. It was completely hollow – or so it seemed. Atlamillia flared once more, and a small globe of yellow light rushed out and into the stone. Toan stared open-mouthed at the stone, blinking a few times. The blue stone's pale swirls darkened for an instant, then something was slowly spelled out in faint lettering.

_'Komacho'._ He smiled down at the gem, feeling a large weigh come off his shoulders. The Fairy King hadn't been lying. The world could be restored, and his friends along with it. So long as he was willing to collect the Atla to do so. Then he sighed. He had a whole lot of Atla to collect, it seemed.

**X~X~X**

When Felix regained consciousness, he immediately rolled out of the way from a Skeleton Soldier trying to bury its sword into his heart as the walking pair of bones seemed to protect a floating sphere that Felix couldn't tell.

Quickly summoning a wall of earth, Felix buried the Skeleton Soldier into the wall and examined the floating sphere just before hearing a pair of shoes hitting the dirt behind him. Felix growled in anger.

"Go away, Jenna!" Felix spat.

"What are you talking about?" A voice asked behind Felix that sounded like a young girl.

Felix roughly pushed her back, and she fell on the ground. He spun around to tell her off, and realized this girl wasn't Jenna but a young man with amber eyes. He was wearing an orange poncho over a sleeveless white top along with black pants. Brown gloves were on his hands and a green beret was on his head.


End file.
